Author: Dasha Kelly

“You want to know about Indian culture?” he asks with a raised brow. I pick up my pen, square my shoulders, and give an affirmative bring-it-on nod. The lobby lounge is relaxed after a full day of visitors and tourists trafficking through the hotel. I’m having an evening coffee at the bar and my guest, […]

I’ve always enjoyed fall. Not because of the burnished and bronze treetops or the soft comfort of an old sweater or for the ubiquity of football. Definitely not for the football. Rather, I am incredibly buoyant during the early fall months, inspired by the season’s warmth and currents of change. Perhaps it’s trace enthusiasm for […]

“Don’t you remember when police officers had the baseball cards?” This happens a lot. Though I’m Milwaukee-born, I’m an Army brat and didn’t fully experience the city until I moved back an adult. Subsequently, I miss many of these “remember back when” references of my Milwaukee-bred peers. “Don’t you remember??” he insists. Gabriel is a […]

When people wax poetic about “the good old days,” it’s not often that they’re referring to the 15th century. “Artists had it best during the Medici period,” my table mate says to me. She’s referring to the Italian dynasty famously credited for ushering forth the Renaissance. Their patronage of promising new artists such as Botticelli, […]

It’s like hearing a song from your past in the car speakers beside you at a stoplight, or when a favorite book cover winks at you from behind the fingers of a fellow traveler. An artificial familiarity, but comforting just the same. A table of professional African American women, still in their heels and lined […]

…continued from “To Tell Our Truth, Part 1” “We have to do more of this!” new Michelle says, gesturing to our tabletop of appetizer plates and empty glasses. We nod and toast in agreement. A 2007 American Bar Association report titled “Visible Invisibility” describes how black women in the legal profession face the “double burden” […]